Best Friends
by SideshowJazz1
Summary: Issy and Mercedes have been best friends forever. Eight years after Chihiro left the spirit world, they stumble across it. Haku lost his name again after Chihiro left, but he feels he owes it to her to help these girls. ON HIATUS, sorry.
1. Chapter 1: Bathouse For The Spirits

**A/N: OK, so I know I should be working on my "Lord Of The Flies" story now, but I wanted to put this up. Basically, it's been eight long years since Chihiro left the spirit world. Yubaba retook Haku's name soon after she left. Now two sixteen-year-old girls stumble across the spirit world, and Haku feels he owes it to Chihiro to help them. Will romance bloom with either girl?**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing from Spirited Away.**

"Hey, what's this?"

Issy and her best friend Mercedes had gone out for the night, and before the nightclubs opened, Issy had driven around the outskirts of the town, and the two girls had ended up in front of a strange tunnel.

"Shall we go in?" Issy's brown eyes sparkled with excitement. "It's not like anything I've ever seen."

Mercedes shivered. "I'm not sure. This is kind of scary. Have you noticed the creepy statues?"

"Come on, Merc." Issy coaxed. "If it's a total non-event, then we'll go back."

"OK." Mercedes said reluctantly. "I guess. But if something happens, it's your fault."

"What could happen?"

The two girls walked into the dark tunnel, and found themselves in what looked like an old amusement park. Issy led the way, Mercedes causiously following. Then something caught her attention. "Hey, what's that aroma?"

"Since when did you start talking like a descriptive piece of writing?" Issy giggled at her friend's language. Then she sniffed. "Though, there is something."

The girls found a few food counters, but no one was there. "What _is _this stuff, anyway?" Mercedes asked.

Issy shrugged. "Korean food?"

Mercedes giggled, then said "Nah. It's probably obscure Asian dishes. Korean food is much more recognizable."

"Shall we buy some?"

"No one is here."

"They'll be back."

"I don't want anything. Do you actually want anything?"

Issy thought about it. "No, not really. I thought I could get something for later, but then again, I think I'll save my money for the clubs."

The girls walked on. They came to a bridge, with a majestic building. It was red and gold, and traditionally Japanese. It was unmistakably a tradtional Japanese bathhouse.

"Oh wow, that is _so _cool." Mercedes breathed.

Issy nudged her friend. "Look at that hot boy!" Mercedes looked, and sure enough, a cute boy was standing on the bridge. He gave a little gasp, then stepped towards the girls, with an emotionless expression.

"It's getting dark. You two need to leave, quickly. Go back, now!"

"Why?" Issy demanded. "What's the rush?" She smiled flirtatiously at the boy.

The boy didn't smile. "I'm serious. You shouldn't be here."

"Come on, Issy, let's just go." Mercedes begged. "I'm sure there's something weird about this place."

Issy gave a sigh. "OK, but we have to come back sometime."

The boy gave her a little push. "You_ have_ to leave! It's serious."

As the girls obeyed and ran for it, the lanterns the stalls were lined with began to light up.

Mercedes shivered. "They're lighting up all by themselves." She kept running. Issy had stopped, staring around.

"Issy!" her friend yelled. "We have to go! Remember what that boy said?"

"Those shadows..." Issy murmured.

"Let it go!" Mercedes cried. "Run!" She grabbed Issy's hand and ran. But the shadows Issy was staring at were not normal. They looked like...people.

Suddenly, Mercedes heard splashing below her trainers, and a cold sensation fell over her feet. She stared down.

"The rocks have become water!" Issy screamed. Mercedes gasped, then she froze, staring at Issy.

"I-I...I can see through you!" she whispered. Issy gave another scream as the two girls clung to each other, wishing this was just one of their pretend games from when they were little. But at sixteen, the girls no longer played those games, and this was real.

Their terror was so great that they didn't see the boy from earlier coming towards them until he was less than a metre away.

Issy was the first to try and swallow her fear and speak to the boy. "Tell us what's happening!" she demanded, trying to sound fearless. Mercedes was not in a position to back up her friend. Already tears were trickling down her face. The boy gave a sigh. "I told you to leave. Now you're stuck here until the gate reopens. It could be one day or one month."

"What gate?" Issy asked. "Why are we fading? What is this place?"

The boy didn't answer her questions. He held out two berries. "You each should take one of these. If you don't, you'll fade to nothing."

"Why should we?" Issy challenged. "How do we know that those aren't poison?"

The boy gave her a serious look. "You could disappear, or try it."

Mercedes looked at the boy. Something told her that he was trying to help. She took one berry and ate it. She began to calm down and stop crying as she became solid again.

"Take it, Is." she managed to say through her lessening tears. Issy looked at her solid friend, and obeyed. She went back to normal, and then turned back to the boy. "Answer my questions, please."

Mercedes tilted her head to one side, staring at the boy. Finally, she asked "Are introductions necessary? Cause if you want to know, I'm Mercedes, and this is Issy." She was blurting out things, because of her fear.

Issy shoved her best friend. "This is hardly the time!"

"But I suppose it's fair." the boy said. He sighed, thinking about how he once was given his name, lost it, remembered it thanks to one girl...and lost it again. He felt that he owed it to that one girl to help others who did the same as her family had. "You can call me Haku." he told the girls. "Now we have to go. If you two want to survive here, we must leave. Come on."

He took Mercedes' hand, and she took Issy's, somehow knowing she was supposed to. Haku began to run faster than anyone could possibly run. The two girls ran after him, only able to because they were holding hands with each other and Haku.

When he finally stopped running, they were near the bridge that led to the bathouse. "How could you possibly run so fast?" Issy asked.

Haku again didn't answer her question. "We have to get across the bridge without anyone seeing you two. If they do, you'll be turned into an animal. Someone would've seen you sooner or later if I wasn't here, and you wouldn't still be human now."

Mercedes gasped. "You mean the thing about this is..._magic? _"

Issy noticed something in Haku's voice. "You sound like you're not human. Am I right?"

"You could say that, both of you." Haku answered. "Okay, both of you have to hold your breath as you cross the bridge. If either of you let it go, everyone will see both of you. Just stick close."

The girls went across. "Take a breath...hold it." Haku quietly reminded them as they stepped onto the bridge. Issy had taken singing lessons since she was ten and as a result could hold her breath for a long time. But Mercedes wasn't interested in learning any music, and was having trouble not breathing. The minute they stepped off the bridge, Mercedes let her breath out in total relief.

"Did we do okay?" she whispered. Haku didn't answer until they got to a secluded place of the garden outside the bathouse.

"You two both did better than I expected." he told them. "But it's only a matter of time before someone else finds out you're here."

"Why is there a problem with someone finding us?" Issy exclaimed. "I mean, if there's no problem with you?"

"Most of them hate humans." Haku explained.

"So what _are _you?" Mercedes asked shyly.

Haku sighed, but answered "Spirits."

Mercedes stayed unusually calm, asking "But why would spirits hate humans?"

"Because some humans are destructive, they cut down forests, angering forest spirits, and other things." Haku told the wide-eyed girls.

"Can't we just get out of here?" Issy asked.

Haku gave her an annoyed look. "The river is blocking the path, remember. I'll try to get you out of here as soon as possible, but meanwhile, you'll have to get a job here, otherwise Yubaba-she rules the bathouse-will turn you into something, most likely a pig or a lump of coal."

Mercedes trembled at the thought.

"What do we have to do?" Issy asked.

Haku put one hand on each of the girls' foreheads, showing them exactly what they had to do in their minds. It was quicker than explaining everything. When he moved away, the two girls had different expressions. Mercedes looked scared and was blushing. There was a smile hovering on Issy's lips, but she didn't let it go any further.

"So let me get this straight." she said. "We go-"

"Um," Mercedes interjected. "Haku, can I ask, has this happened before? You're acting like you've gone through this before."

"A human girl wandered in here years ago." Haku admitted. "I'd met her ages before, and her parents had been turned into pigs for eating the food at the stalls down there." Mercedes sent a look to Issy that said "_Told you we shouldn't have gotten anything."_

"I told her to get a job." Haku continued. "Kamaji couldn't give her a job, so he sent her to Yubaba, and she got a job here. I had to get her out of contract. Oh, and just in case it comes to that-" he got out a piece of paper and a pen and ripped it in half. He gave the pen to Mercedes first, and gave her one half of the paper. "Write your name down, and put it somewhere safe." he instructed.

_My name is Mercedes, _the girl wrote neatly, although she was puzzled by why she'd need her name written down. Once Issy got her paper and the pen, she did the same.

"Now I have to leave." Haku said to the girls. "I've got my job to attend to. But don't forget, I'm your friend. Just trust me on that, OK?" Then he left.

**A/N: This may seem too much like the movie, but I promise there will be differences. Also, I promise Mercedes won't be so much like Chihiro, and neither girl will be Mary-Sueish.**


	2. Chapter 2: Changing Your Name

**Okay, another chapter! I do not own _Spirited Away. _However, I do own Issy and Mercedes. Everyone who reviews gets an evening with their favourite Ghibli character.**

The two girls, holding hands, stood outside Yubaba's door. They had gone through, and met a few spirits. They had met Kamaji, the boiler man. He seemed to dislike humans as Haku had described, Issy thought. However, Mercedes wondered how he had reacted to the girl before them. They had been taken to the floor of Yubaba's office by a young brunette supposedly in her twenties who had come down to the boiler room at one point. She had seemed surprised and none too pleased to see humans, but she was OK.

Mercedes had been tempted to ask "Has this happened before?"

"Some girl stumbled in here about eight years ago." the brunette had said testily. "Not that I bothered with her. One of the other workers had to work with her. If you two get a job, you'll probably get handed over to her, as well." Issy had nudged Mercedes crossly and shaken her head, as if to tell her that she should stop asking "stupid" questions.

Now they stood outside the door. Mercedes was trembling, and Issy was pale. She reached for the door knocker, but drew her hand back when the door knocker spoke.

"Humans again? Well, you're a little older than the last one." The door opened, and they heard a gravelly woman's voice tell them to come in. The girls clung onto each other's hand tightly as they walked into the hallway revealed, wondering where to go. A second later, an invisible force pulled them into a large room where they at last faced the sorceress Yubaba.

Issy was the one to speak up. "Excuse me, but my friend and I would like to get jobs here. We're willing to work hard. We know that we are human, but could you please give us jobs?"

Yubaba glanced up, and answered "This is no place for humans. They always mess everything up. The last one I employed let a monster into the bathouse. So I'm hardly going to hire another two." She laughed, seeing Mercedes' scared face, and Issy's poorly disguised fear.

This time it was Mercedes who spoke. "We are simply dilligent individuals who have had experience. We can take any job you give us, and we won't complain. Please, give us jobs. We promise that we will do well on them."

Yubaba spoke again. "You shouldn't even be here. Both of you should be punished for being in this world. Maybe I should turn you both into coal."

Issy hung her head, feeling it would be useless, but Mercedes ploughed on "Please. We can't get out of this world. We would like nothing more than to get jobs here, and we are not leaving until you give us jobs."

Yubaba knew that she would have to in the end, having taken a vow to give a job to anyone who asks, and snapped "Fine!" Two pieces of paper with contracts flew up, along with two pens. Each flew into the girls' hand.

"Sign your name away, and you'll get your job." Yubaba told them, ringing a bell.

When she looked at the contracts, she smirked. Mercedes' was first. "So, which one of you is Mercedes?"

"Me." Mercedes said in a nervous whisper.

"A very unusual name." before her eyes, the word peeled off the paper into Yubaba's hand. "Your name now belongs to me. From now on, you are Maki. Got that, Maki?" Mercedes nodded, thinking of the paper she had her name on.

Next was Issy. "You..." Yubaba said "Your name from now on is Sheeta." Issy gave a nod.

"You called?" The girls turned to see Haku standing there, called from the bell Yubaba had rung.

"Set these two girls up with a job." Yubaba said in a bored voice.

Haku nodded, than asked the girls "What are your names?"  
"Maki."

"Sheeta."

"Follow me, Maki and Sheeta."

As the girls and Haku travelled down in the elevator, they glanced at each other, wondering why Haku had suddenly changed personalities.

"Um," Sheeta began. Haku silenced her with a cold look.

"What is with him?" Sheeta whispered to Maki, who shrugged.

The girls found themselves in the middle of other employees. Haku spoke to them. "Yes, these two are human, but they signed contracts, so you'll have to put up with them if they work hard enough. Is Lin here? Since she worked with Sen, I think she should have the responsibility of these two as well."

Another brunette like the one that took the girls to Yubaba looked up. "What? I have enough to do! Aw, fine. Come on, you two." She walked out of the room, and the girls followed her.

In the hallway, she spoke to the girls. "How did you two get here?"

"We were just walking around before going out for the night." Sheeta said.

"Who's Sen?" Maki asked shyly.

Lin smiled a little. "She was another human who worked here for a couple of days. In fact, she was like my little sister. We all miss her here." She sighed. "And since she worked with me, Haku assumes that I should work with any humans who come here."

"We're sorry." Maki offered.

Lin then showed less coldness than the other brunette girl. "It's not your fault, I guess." she said to the girls. "Who knows? It might be fun, working with you two."

She led the duo down to a bedroom, and got them some clothes to wear for when they were working like hers-pink and white. Sheeta looked terrified of wearing that, since she lived for fashion if not fun. Maki was hoping she could have worn something more flattering, but she wasn't as concerned. While Sheeta had worn immaculate makeup and designer jeans with her only DKNY T-shirt for their night out, Maki had made do with a sparkly strappy top, denim shorts and shoes that looked like a mix of sandals and sneakers.

Lin also got out two futons for the girls. When they at last climbed under the sheets, Maki silently cried herself to sleep, wondering how long they'd have to stay there. She barely realized that she already thought of herself as Maki, and had forgotten her name was ever Mercedes.

**A/N: Sorry this was so short, but I thought I should end it here! Why aren't there any reviews? I love getting them, and I will credit you in the next chapter, I promise! I chose Issy's new name from the female lead of _Laputa: Castle In The Sky, _which I do not own.**


	3. Chapter 3: Dreaming Of Thousands

**Here is Chapter Three! Thank you for your reviews, spirited away forever/Sen.**

Soft footsteps sounded in the room the girls were asleep in. Sheeta's eyes were closed and she had her hands clasped in front of her. She was humming a Katy Perry song in her sleep. Maki was silent, but she tossed and turned a lot. She began to slowly awaken and started at the footsteps. She closed her eyes again as she felt a hand touch her duvet cover. "Meet me at the bridge and bring Sheeta. I have to talk to you, before everyone else wakes up." The footsteps sounded, and became inaudible.

Maki sat up and shook her friends' shoulder. "Sheeta, wake up." she whispered.

Sheeta was still asleep and humming 'Waking Up In Vegas'. "Huh, what?" she mumbled, waking up in the spirit world. (**A/N: Sorry, couldn't resist the pun!**)

"We have to go to the bridge." Maki whispered. "Get dressed and meet me there. Quick."

Five minutes later, the two girls wore their clothes for their work, and were standing on the bridge. They jumped when they heard a voice next to them.

"You made it, I see." Haku gave the girls a half smile.

"Don't _do _that!" Sheeta snapped.

"What is it?" Maki asked.

Haku frowned a little. "Have you two still got your other clothes with you?" The girls nodded. "Good, hang on to those. Otherwise, you can't get home. Have you got the paper I gave you with your name?"

Maki frowned. "Why did we need that, Haku? I remember my name."

"Have you got the paper with you?" Haku asked her. As it happened, Maki did have it with her. She read it out loud.

"_My name is...Mercedes?_" she gasped. "What happened to me?"

"Yubaba controls her employees by stealing their names. I gave you that paper so you wouldn't forget your names. If you do, you'll never get home." Haku turned to Sheeta. "If you don't remember your name, it's Issy."

Issy remembered her name in a flash. "Oh wow, I can't believe I forgot my name!"

"Neither can I." Mercedes shook her head in disbelief.

"Call yourselves Sheeta and Maki while you're here, but keep reminding yourselves of your real names." Haku instructed. "I'm stuck here because of that."

Mercedes sighed. "Haku, this seems so hard. We have to do all these things. But it must be even harder for you. How can you stand to help us when you're in a similar situation?"

The answer was spoken after a pause. "I feel I owe it."

When the girls got back, everyone was still asleep. They both got another hour of sleep until Lin woke them up for the day. They had to begin work straight away, before they had breakfast. Mercedes hated that, as she always had a bowl of cereal before anything else each morning, but Issy regularly skipped breakfast, so she found it was OK.

They found the other employees treated them as inferiors. They had to get soap tokens three or four times, and each time the foreman tried to refuse to give them.

The first time, Mercedes went. "You don't get a token." snapped the foreman.

"But I need to get it for the customer, sir." Mercedes said politely.

"You just said you needed it to clean one of the tubs." the foreman answered.

"It's for a customer, sir."

"Fine, take it." The foreman nearly threw the token at the poor girl.

When Issy went, she was refused in a similar way.

"I _need_ it." she said.

"Too bad, I'm not giving it to you." the foreman answered.

It took ten minutes on average to convince the foreman to give them a soap token each time, give or take a minute.

"It's so _unfair_!" Issy complained to Mercedes that evening, stretched out on a balcony.

"Look on the bright side." Mercedes reasoned. "Not everyone treats us like that. Haku doesn't. I've got a feeling Yubaba pretty much treats everyone as inferiors, so don't take it personally. Even Lin doesn't treat us like we're below her."

Issy pretended to be thoughtful. "Let's see, how many customers muttered 'stupid human' when they saw us? How about all of them?"

"Hey, Maki, Sheeta, it's lights out!" called Lin's voice.

"Can't we come in later?" Mercedes called back.

"Whatever."

The two teenagers talked for a little longer, than went to bed.

The two girls woke up early again. They gave each other weak smiles.

"I had this really weird dream last night." Mercedes blurted out. "This girl, about eleven, maybe ten? She was fading like we were two nights ago, and she was scared, and I saw someone who was probably Haku, but younger, telling her that he only wanted to help her."

"I dreamed about this monster that gave out gold and claimed that he wanted 'Sen', and that was a girl with a ponytail." Issy confessed. "Also, I remember that I heard Lin saying something to the girl like 'I'm sorry I called you a dope before', and all this strange stuff."

A thought struck Mercedes. "You don't think that the girl we dreamed of was the one that came here before? Didn't Haku say her name was Sen?"

Issy laughed. "No, our dreams are probably the effect we get from living a fairy tale where we're in danger of forgetting our name and that."

Mercedes still wasn't sure. Issy's theory made sense, but there was one more thing Mercedes decided to ask. "What did the girl in your dream look like?"

Issy looked thoughtful for a moment. "Well...she had stringy brown hair in a ponytail, and brown eyes. She was tallish and thin. In some of my dream she was wearing a stripy green top and red shorts."

Mercedes wasn't surprised. "The girl in my dream looked like that too. I think we were dreaming about the same girl."

Issy still doubted it, but later in the day, she ran into a girl dressed the same way she was. The girl was younger than her, with wide brown eyes and a nervous expression.

"I've got some advice for you." the girl said quietly. "Just remember who you were before you came here. You may be different when you leave, but take care of your identity."

"Who are you?" Issy demanded, crossing her arms. "And what are you talking about?"

The girl didn't properly answer. "I can't tell you that. You should speak to Haku when you next see him."

Issy began to walk away, but after two paces, she stopped to look back.

The girl had disappeared.

**Yeah, that doesn't tell you much. But hey, Chihiro's in the story now!**


End file.
